This recommended hub was in extremely poor taste - Shame on Hubpages!

1. 73

   TimArendsposted 7 months ago

   I was looking at one of my hubs the other day and at the bottom I was scanning the recommended feed for other hubs (I do this to try to find like-minded hubbers, although I find the recommendation engine is rather poor and usually fails to find related or new hubs).
   
   What I saw, however, was much worse: a hub titled: "The Simpsons Predictions for 2025 are Crazy." It showed a Simpsons-style cartoon image of President Trump during the assassination attempt showing blood streaming down his face and surrounded by Secret Service agents. This was extremely poor taste.
   
   What's worse is it was showing another Simpson style character (Homer?) perched on the roof of a building and holding a rifle with a laser site trained on Trump's forehead!
   
   Who thought it was a good idea to add such a distasteful image to the Hubpages recommended feed?
   
   Would it be a good idea to make light of the Kennedy assassination or the Martin Luther King assassination? Would it be appropriate to show, say, MLK in a Simpsons-style drawing with a bullet hole in his head and blood streaming down his face? Then why is it OK for the former president?
   
   You can't have a democracy if you don't have respect for Democratic elections and you can't have respect for Democratic elections if you make light of assassination attempts on presidential candidates or other acts of violence.
   
   Let's say you don't see anything wrong with this  drawing. If so, you should ask yourself how you would feel if someone showed Kamala Harris in a Simpsons-style drawing with a laser sight trained on her forehead?
   
   Now let's say a Democrat president gets elected in the future, and the idea of assassination attempts on a president or presidential candidate has been so trivialized by images like this that people think it's okay to make multiple attempts on the life of that person? Would that be OK with you?
   
   Hubpages needs to think about its standards (and perhaps double standards) and not show distasteful images in its recommended feed or make light of political violence.

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   1. STAFF

      Matt Wellsposted 7 months agoin reply to this

      The article has been reviewed and the image has been removed.

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      Genna Eastposted 7 months agoin reply to this

      I must share my concern over the fact that the Recommended/Related hub links have nothing whatsoever to do what we have published.  On the contrary, they read like a bit of a Smorgasbord dump that is often in poor taste.  I added this to my profile: “Please note that the "Recommended" and "Scroll to Continue" articles inserted into our publications are not the author's recommendations…these insets are added by Hubpages. The same is true of HP's choices of "Related Articles."
      
      I don’t think they have the staff numbers that are needed to handle this this properly.

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      Rachelle Williamsposted 7 months agoin reply to this

      That type of article does sound offensive, but I have to say that I'm far more offended at Donald Trump being compared to Martin Luther King, Jr. - not that the reverend was a saint, but let's get real here... I guess everyone is entitled to an opinion.

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         theraggededgeposted 7 months agoin reply to this

         OP is not comparing the two men but the actions taken against them.

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2. 83

   Rupert Taylorposted 7 months ago

   Tim - this seems to be the norm these days. Any old crap gets on to Discover. There was a time when standards were set and observed on HubPages. Not any more. It seems that the only curating that's done now is by machines and they can't distinguish between poor and good taste.
   
   It seems that maintaining standards is now left to us, the unpaid writers. If we spot an outrageous article we report it. TAG doesn't give a rat's a... about quality.

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      Kenna McHughposted 7 months agoin reply to this

      Rupert, You are correct. It's a shame, for sure, Tim. TAG no longer has integrity.

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